


Enchantment

by strictlyhighbuttonshoes



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Babies, Clint is still an Avenger but he's on family leave I guess, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Spoilers, This is full of spoilers obviously, Wanda and Clint being tentative friends, Wanda having feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 21:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3910687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strictlyhighbuttonshoes/pseuds/strictlyhighbuttonshoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda goes to see Clint and Laura's new baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enchantment

**Author's Note:**

> So obviously this is spoiler-y. Use your judgement and do not read this if you haven't read the movie if you don't want to be spoiler'd.  
> Now that that's out of the way...
> 
> I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED HERE. It was only supposed to be about 800 words? And now there's this monster? Ehh.  
> I went to see the Avengers 2 for the second time a couple days ago and I noticed what the baby onesie said in the picture on Nat's phone at the end, and then I was basically run over by feels and wanted to write something. 
> 
> Hope you like it! Again, don't blame me if you read this without watching the movie.

Rhodey dropped Wanda on the outskirts of the Bartons' property, and jetted off after he reminded her to call when she needed picking up.  

The farmhouse was unassuming, classic white trim and a big veranda. Wanda stood at the gate for a minute, just drinking in the domesticity of the whole picture, and then started up the path to the front door.

Being an alien experiment and an orphan hadn't exactly made her into a model citizen, but enough time spent with Steve Rogers would school anyone into knowing how to knock on a door with the right amount of confidence. Wanda rapped her knuckles against the worn wood of the door, and stepped back to wait.

It wasn't long before the pounding of feet sounded inside the house, and the door flew open to reveal two small children, a girl and a taller boy, peering up at Wanda with open curiosity.

Nicole and Lewis Barton had their father's light brown hair and what must be their mother's small nose. When she brushed their minds, Wanda found only the sunshine and innocence of youth – Clint's occupation as an Avenger had not tainted them, and they did not look upon her with suspicion or hostility.

"Kids, go outside and help your father."

Laura Barton stood in the entryway to what was probably the kitchen, her hands deep in the pockets of her summer dress. Her children immediately followed her instructions, peeling away from Wanda and rushing past their mother and out into the back of the house.

Wanda didn't entirely know what to do. Clint had invited her to come by and see his new son, after Natasha had circulated the photo with Pietro's name emblazoned on the tiny baby's chest as his middle name, abruptly causing Wanda's heart to shatter into a thousand million tiny pieces.

She hadn't accounted for any misgivings that his wife might have about her.

"You must be Wanda," Laura said, and then suddenly they were hugging. Wanda found herself being pressed against Laura's chest, her strong, motherly arms wrapping around her back and squeezing.

Wanda hadn't been hugged by anyone since Pietro died. A woman hadn't hugged her since her mother died. She was frozen, and Laura was pulling away. Wanda flattened her palms over Laura's spine and hugged back.

Laura uttered a tiny sound of surprise, but then Wanda felt the older woman's grip tighten. Wanda could feel her head sinking downwards gradually, until her forehead was resting on Laura's shoulder, Laura's chin a solid point on the back of her neck. For the first time in a long time, Wanda felt safe, in a way that the Avengers and her own powers could not replicate.

She was just starting to enjoy the hug when Clint barged into the room.

"Nicole said that there was a woman here, is it Wanda?" He squinted at the newest Avenger, nestled as she was in his wife's arms, Laura's back to her husband and simultaneously shielding her from his view. " _Wanda_?"

"Must you yell so loud," Wanda grumbled, at the same time that Laura hissed, "We were having a _moment_."

"Sorry," Clint said, meek in the face of Laura's stern expression.

Wanda pulled gently away from Laura, feeling the air from the open door wash over her face and realising that her cheeks were wet. A tissue appeared in her line of sight – Clint was holding it out to her, having procured it from… somewhere. She took it and dried her face, and then dabbed at her eyes until the moisture stopped. She then tucked the tissue into her pocket.

Through clear, remarkable restraint, Clint managed not to comment on the obvious tears.

"How are you going, Wanda?" Clint asked, his voice quiet.

"I am well," Wanda replied, giving the archer a small smile. "Training is good, as usual. The Captain is a good leader, and we always learn new things when we are with him."

"And Nat?"

Wanda grimaced, and Clint laughed.

"That bad, huh?"

"She is strict, strives for perfection. But she is fair, when she wants to be."

"Sounds like her," Laura snickered. "Clint has a lot of stories about Natasha from when they were training together, don't you hon—"

"I think Wanda came to see Nate!" Clint shouted over his wife, his eyes wide and comically panicked. "Why don't we go and see him?!" He led the way out of the room, muttering loudly about mean women and unfair tactics.

Wanda and Laura followed, Wanda feeling vaguely confused and amused, and Laura sniggering behind her hands.

~

Wanda's first impression of Nathaniel Pietro Barton was:

"Fat."

"Yeah, babies lend themselves to that comparison, that's for sure," Clint said, when Wanda uttered her comment. "They're just little piles of fat rolls with adorable fat features."

Laura was holding Nate, which was his nickname, on her hip as the baby and Wanda engaged in a staring contest.

Wanda had been around babies. At the orphanage, which was where she and Pietro grew up before they were old enough to volunteer for Strucker's experiments, there were always babies. But they were kept away from the twins, because even without powers, Pietro and Wanda were not exactly little angels.

Nate was different. He wasn't crying. He was waving a tiny fist in the air, weak and aimless, and he was gazing at her with huge blue eyes, fascinated by the new big person. Most of the Avengers, apart from Bruce, had stopped by between training sessions to see him after he was born, Tony just refraining from posting pictures of the adorable child all over the Internet to celebrate the 'uncanny reproduction of flawless genes in a tiny, weakling mini-human'.

Wanda was enchanted. She stepped closer to Laura and Nate, raising a finger up to the baby's fist and poking at it. Almost immediately, Nate grabbed her finger in all of his, squeezing with single-minded determination. Wanda was shocked at the strength with which he held on to her.

"Yeah, he's deceptively strong," Clint commented, observing his son's iron grip. "Don't let him get a hold of your hair – Laura tells me that it is not an experience you want to have any time soon."

Wanda continued to stare into Nate's eyes. He was holding her gaze with exceptional concentration for a baby.

"He's wonderful," Wanda whispered, a slow, wide smile spreading across her face. Nate stared at her as she did it, and his tiny lips immediately attempted to imitate it, drool leaking from the corners of his mouth as he did.

Clint had gone quiet; Wanda could hear his slow, steady breathing behind her. Laura was quiet as well, just holding onto Nate and watching the exchange.

The moment broke when Nate abruptly yawned and turned away from Wanda, breaking the eye contact and snapping Wanda back to herself.

"Would you like to hold him?" Laura asked, shifting Nate to her other hip, and Wanda stared at her.

"…Could I?"

Clint made a pained sound from behind her. "What, have people told you that you're not allowed to hold their babies?"

She turned around and replied, "Yes."

Clint's mouth closed, but now he just looked kind of sad, and that was even worse. Wanda turned back to Laura and held out her arms.

"I would love to hold him."

The transfer between the two women was a little awkward. Nate was a heavy baby, and Wanda didn't know how to hold him, and she was briefly terrified that she would drop him, but then he was laying in her arms and looking up into her face and being perfect, and all the juggling was suddenly, astoundingly, worth it.

About twenty seconds after Wanda had received the baby, Nate started to cry. She winced, and was somewhat satisfied to note that Clint did as well. Laura, however, swept in, collected Nate from Wanda's arms and bustled away with him to the changing table.

"Sorry, Wanda. He just gets fussy around this time of day. It's time for his afternoon nap – yes it is, it's time for you to go to sleep and give your parents a break, isn't it, gorgeous boy – Clint, I'm going to change and feed him and then you and Wanda can put him to bed while I shower, okay?"

Clint called out an affirmative as Laura finished changing Nate in record time, sweeping him up and heading downstairs with him.

Together, Clint and Wanda stood side by side at the bay window overlooking the farm.

"What have you been doing with yourself, Barton?" Wanda asked, her tone soft as she surveyed the peaceful property.

"Well, Laura wouldn't let me knock out the kitchen wall, so I'm stuck doing all the other things I said I'd do that I never got around to because I was building bigger things and destroying other big things, so, you know, domestic family life, nothing else really," Clint answered. "I'd come in if Cap asked me to, obviously, but for now we both agreed that I need to spend some time with my family."

"We do not need you anyway," Wanda quipped, and smiled to herself as Clint squawked with indignation.

"You _have_ gotten meaner since you started hanging out with Nat!" he sputtered, clutching at his chest like she had wounded him.

"There has been talk of replacing you."

"You are _breaking_ my _heart_ , Wanda!"

"If you need a new project which won't make Laura resent you, a horse paddock would be a good one," Wanda interrupted.

"What?"

"Nicole would quite like a pony," she explained. "If she were to… acquire one, a place to keep it would be tantamount."

"You are not going to tell Tony to buy my daughter a pony, not under any circumstances," Clint warned. "How do you even know she wants one? She hasn't said anything about it to me!"

Wanda hesitated, before she replied, "I saw it, in her mind when they opened the door. I didn't mean to look, but I couldn't stop it in time."

"Huh," Clint huffed. "Well, then, it must be true. If I start building this thing, though, you can't tell Nicole about it, okay? Promise."

"I promise," Wanda told him, completely serious.

"What are we promising?" Laura asked, appearing at the door. Nate was almost passed out against her chest, and she transferred him to Clint's arms with the ease of a lot of practice. Nate mouthed at his father's shoulder with gummy jaws, his eyes drooping with sleepiness.

"Nicole apparently wants a pony," Clint told her, rotating Nate in his grip so he can lay the baby down in the crib, pulling the blanket up around his shoulders and tucking him in.

"And we know this how?" Laura asked, sceptical.

"Wanda saw it in her mind when the kids opened the door. You know, with her powers."

"Ah, yes," Laura muttered. "So, how badly does she want this pony? Does she understand the responsibility that it requires?"

"It is a developing idea," Wanda explained. "I merely thought it would be a good outlet for Clint, should he wish to move his renovation skills somewhere other than the already-perfect house he wanted to alter."

"Good plan," Laura affirmed. "Well, I'm off to bathe. I will be a while. I may not come out until dinner, which I expect to be cooked by someone who is not me. Wanda, it was lovely to meet you. Please come by any time you want, to talk, to hang out, whatever you want to do."

Wanda nodded in acquiescence as Laura pulled her in for another tight hug. She felt Laura's fingers running through her hair, and suppressed a quiet sound of contentment. She was not so open with her emotions just yet, not after the incident earlier. When Laura pulled away, Wanda let her go, and shared a smile with the other woman.

With a parting kiss for Clint, Laura practically ran to the bathroom across the hall, and moments later, the pipes in the house creaked as the bath started to fill.

Wanda turned her attention back to Nate and Clint, who were staring at each other. Nate seemed to be quite fond of the activity. He was bumbling sound through his mouth, and Clint was nodding along mindlessly. Wanda drew the curtains across the windows, shrouding the room in partial darkness.

Wanda's phone buzzed; she removed it from her pocket and read Rhodey's message – Steve was calling a meeting, and Rhodey would be collecting her in ten minutes.

Nate hiccupped and opened his mouth wider, a piercing wail in the silence, making Clint and Wanda both wince. Clint shot her a look, almost imperceptible in its expression.

"Do you know of any, I don't know, magic that can put him to sleep? Like, sweet dreams or something?"

Wanda suddenly remembered their encounter back in the ship with Ultron, and the words he'd said to her right before he'd electrocuted her.

"I thought you didn't like the idea of mind control," Wanda pressed, even as she moved up to the other side of the crib.

"I don't," Clint agreed. "But I don't think you'd do something like that to my kid. And Cap says that you're improving. Just, might be faster than a lullaby."

It wasn't a test, that was for sure, Wanda thought. There was no way that Clint would subject his own flesh and blood to an experiment. He trusted her to give Nate a little bit of happiness, to send him off to sleep with ease instead of hardship and tears.

Nate let out another cry, and Wanda made up her mind.

Her fingers danced at Nate's temples, the red fire sinking into his impossibly soft baby skin and creating swirling, twisting patterns there. Nate's cry tapered off, and then he emitted a tiny, contented sigh as he drifted off to sleep. Wanda drew away, and the fire slowly faded, from the air and from Nate. He slept on.

Clint was watching her. He followed her when she walked out of the room and down the stairs, and out of the house into the front garden. They stopped at the gate, standing side by side and looking out at the fields.

"What's he dreaming about?"

"For now, he'll dream of his family, and how safe he feels with you all around him. After that, he will make his own dreams and wake up at the same time as he has before."

Clint nodded and smiled. "That's good, then."

"Yes, it is."

"Why'd you go for family?"

Wanda looked away. "It is a constant in most children's lives. It is what makes them feel the most loved and the most wanted. It is the safest thing in their minds, and it makes them the most content."

"You know," Clint began, and Wanda felt his hand fall on her shoulder, pulling her around to face him, "you do have a family, Wanda."

She knew what he meant, but it still hurt a little. "Yes."

"It doesn't mean that you have to forget the one that you lost, but the Avengers? Me, and Laura and the kids? We can be your family now. And it's not a horrible thing to want that."

"I just miss my brother," Wanda whispered, and she hated herself for letting it slip out like that, especially to Clint, whom she knew still blamed himself, even in a small way.

"Pietro would still be alive if it wasn't for me," Clint muttered, and Wanda's gaze snapped to him. Yes, this is what she had been afraid of.

"Do not think that Pietro did not believe it was worth his life to save you and that boy," Wanda told him. "Pietro was arrogant, and confident, but he had a good heart. He would be glad that you survived, if only for the pain that he spared your family by preventing your death."

Clint's hand tightened on her shoulder, and Wanda stepped forward, threw one arm over his shoulder and the other around his waist, and squeezed.

He was obviously surprised that she had done it, but he hugged her back just the same. She felt the words that he murmured into her hair, and accepted his apology.

"It is like you said," Wanda told him when she pulled back to look him in the eyes. "What happened was a mix of fault. But we are Avengers. We fought it. We won. And Pietro felt a victory when he saved you. So, that is enough for me, to know that my brother died believing in something that was bigger than himself."

"I guess that's all we can ask for," Clint agreed, smoothing out the scarlet leather of her jacket where it had crumpled in his grip.

"Am I interrupting something?"

" _Rhodey_!" Clint yelped. "How long have you been standing there, man?"

"I literally just touched down, Clint. What are you, deaf?" Rhodey grinned at them both, the face mask on War Machine flipped up.

"Ugh. Well, Wanda, guess your ride's here," Clint griped. "Glorified hunk of scrap metal that he is."

"Watch it, Hawkguy," Rhodey retorted, but his easy grin didn't falter. He and Tony bantered so much that he was practically immune to all taunts.

"It's eye. _Eye_."

"Yeah, yeah. How's that munchkin of yours?"

"He loves Wanda," Clint smirked, and Wanda looked away.

"Oh yeah?"

"He stared at her for twice as long as he stared at Nat."

"Don't let her hear you say that. We might have a civil war on our hands."

"You said there was a meeting?" Wanda interrupted, not relishing the conversation turning to a discussion about her fighting Natasha at all.

"Yeah," Rhodey confirmed, and stepped up to Wanda, looping an arm around her waist and lifting her to stand on his metal feet. "Super important, Hawkeye not invited."

"Nat will just tell me everything anyway!" Clint protested over the whine of the repulsors firing up.

"Later, Clint!" Rhodey yelled, his faceplate snapping into place as Wanda summoned an air bubble around her head.

She waved to Clint as Rhodey carried her into the sky and off towards base, looking back at the farm and pondering on where best to place the horse paddock that Clint was definitely going to build.

**Author's Note:**

> This exhausted me creatively. And I used up all my words doing this instead of my major essay, so now I'm a little screwed, but still happy. 
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://obsoleteangles.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
